Cricket news

• Chris Woakes bats away Ashes curfew to focus on pink balls and bouncers

  29-11-2017 19:00 via theguardian.com
  Expectations are high in the England and Australia camps that 20 wickets will be easier to take using the pink Kookaburra ball in the second Ashes TestThere is a game going on here on Saturday. It may be even more relevant than the one taking place in Canterbury, New Zealand, on Sunday and it was Chris Woakes, who was plucked out to remind us of the importance of the second Test in Adelaide.It was always going to be Woakes. The Warwickshire all-rounder has many assets; he can bowl brisk away-swi
  
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• Worcestershire’s Alex Hepburn charged with two counts of rape

  29-11-2017 18:31 via theguardian.com
  • Australian-born all-rounder due in court of December 7
  • Worcester also dealing with Steve Rhodes’ disciplinary matterWorcestershire’s Alex Hepburn has been charged with raping a woman after an investigation by West Mercia police. The county said the all-rounder has been suspended on full pay after being charged with two counts of rape on 1 April this year.The West Mercia force has confirmed that the Australian-born Hepburn, aged 21, of Diglis, Worcester, was charged this
  
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• Australia's affair with the bouncer an intimidation tool of Ashes past

  29-11-2017 18:00 via theguardian.com
  After Phil Hughes’ death, memories of the short ball will never be the same, but Australia remains obsessed with breaking EnglandThe Ashes of 2013-14 casts a long shadow. Mitchell Johnson is the gunslinger at sunset. He defines the modern genre like John Wayne did Westerns. From months ago, when anticipation of the current Ashes series began, through to the close of the Gabba Test this week and looking to the matches ahead, there has been an obsession with short-pitched bowling, with frigh
  
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• England’s and Australia’s nerves to be tested by evening-session spookiness

  29-11-2017 17:59 via theguardian.com
  Adelaide’s first day/night Ashes Test will see cricket work in reverse of the usual horror movie rules – it’s when the lights come on that batsmen get jitteryAdelaide, then, and a second Test that, after all the distractions, seems to have come around quicker than Cameron Bancroft after Jonny Bairstow’s hello. England are 1-0 down but have some hope. Their fans should relish the sensation, because if the team lose it will likely be the last time they feel it in an Ashes u
  
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• Ben Stokes’s Ashes return hangs by a thread as police pass file to CPS

  29-11-2017 17:01 via theguardian.com
  • Police hand evidence to CPS for charging advice over Bristol incident
  • Statement says 27-year-old man suffered fractured eye socketBen Stokes’s chances of making a dramatic comeback to England’s Ashes squad appeared to suffer a setback on Wednesday when police confirmed they would be referring his assault case to the Crown Prosecution Service.Stokes has been unavailable for England selection following his arrest on 25 September after a late night incident in Bristol. Con
  
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• Ben Stokes arrives in New Zealand

  29-11-2017 13:01 via bbc.co.uk
  England all-rounder Ben Stokes has arrived in New Zealand but refused to comment on his future, after his arrest in September.
  
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• England would welcome Ben Stokes ‘with open arms’ if cleared for Ashes

  29-11-2017 11:35 via theguardian.com
  • Chris Woakes hoping to see Stokes back in Australia
  • Australian media lay into ECB over handling of Stokes’ New Zealand tripBen Stokes would be welcomed back to the England squad “with open arms” after touching down in New Zealand to get himself match fit for a possible Ashes call-up.Saturday’s pink-ball second Test in Adelaide – a chance to draw level with Australia after the 10-wicket defeat at the Gabba – remains the focus for Joe Root’s
  
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• The Spin | Australia’s pace trio may be fearsome but Nathan Lyon is their key man | Andy Bull

  29-11-2017 10:59 via theguardian.com
  Forget the muscle-bound moustachioed pace triumvirate, it was the slight balding man who was behind England’s downfall in BrisbaneOften as not you can pick a cricketer from their build and bearing. Mitchell Starc, gangly, wiry, spry, could only be a fast bowler, just as David Warner, bullish, stocky and thickset, looks a natural batsman, and Tim Paine, slight and impish, has the cut of a wicketkeeper. But then there’s Nathan Lyon, who has the kind of everyday physique that gives hope
  
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• Ben Stokes arrives in Christchurch to hostile Australian media reception

  29-11-2017 04:44 via theguardian.com
  Australia’s key media outlets have not shied away from criticism of England’s ‘bad boy’, calling the handling of the assault allegations an ‘unmitigated disaster’Australian papers have piled into Ben Stokes as he arrives closer to – if not actually on – their shores.The England allrounder has flown to Christchurch in New Zealand to play with local club Canterbury, some 3,000km east of his team-mates who are preparing for the second Test in Adelaide
  
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